Update: Variety has confirmed that Marvel is moving ahead with "Guardians Of The Galaxy" for a May 16, 2014 release instead of "Black Panther" which was also under consideration. Nicole Perlman, part of the Disney screenwriting program, has penned a script that has apparently been well received by the studio. Don't expect much at Comic-Con about the movie as it's expected that Marvel will focus on "Iron Man 3," but with two years to go, there is lots of time for the studio to carefully roll out their plans for 'Guardians.'
While nothing is official from Marvel until they issue a press release, and given that until that time they will stay mum and tend to deny everything (including these rumors), signs are pointing toward "Guardians Of The Galaxy" being the next movie announced from the studio, expected to take the open 2014 release date. The first rumblings came from reports that the studio had filed a bunch of trademarks for "Guardians Of The Galaxy," and now there is somewhat firmer word coming down from a site that tends to have insiders in the know.
Latino Review is reporting that Marvel will use Comic-Con to unveil "Guardians Of The Galaxy" as their second 2014 movie (the other being "Captain America 2"), with the movie arriving on May 16, 2014. As the site notes, the team of superheroes does meet up with The Avengers in the comics, so perhaps in the mega-Marvel universe of movies, this could be a good way to set up a supersized sequel to the hit movie that is still crushing the box office. And there have already been hints from honcho Kevin Feige that the next movie to be announced won't be directly connected to The Avengers. "Our next step will be to introduce a character outside the Avengers' world," he recently told Empire.
Now, if we want to play with semantics, note that he said "introduce a character" (singular) not plural, which makes us wonder — what about Black Panther? It was only last month that Latino Review themselves has posited that would be the next Marvel standalone character to get a movie, and curiously, they don't refer to that report at all here. Was their intel wrong on that point? Since that report dropped, the rumblings have been that it was inaccurate, and 'Guardians' seems to be a safer bet. But again, we won't know until Marvel decides to let everyone in on their plans, and that won't be for a few weeks yet.
So is Marvel hoping to recapture the team-up magic of 'Avengers' with 'Guardians'? Do you think that's the right next step for Marvel, and if not, what character would you rather see? Sound off below.